© Copyright – 2020 – Athletics Illustrated
The Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) continues to find itself on the wrong side of world governing bodies. In this case, World Athletics (WA) and the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) will be holding their hand as they learn to play clean.
They have been fined 10-million USD or nearly nine-million euros. Half of which is due on July 1, 2020.
From a report by Run Anderson who is head of the World Athletics Task Force that contained several recommended measures including the reinstatement of the Authorized Neutral Athlete (ANA) protocol.
The ANA process permits a cap of 10 neutral Russian athletes to compete in global events.
Eight of the 10 athletes will come from the AIU’s testing pool.
This includes three-time high jump world champion Mariya Lasitskene, pole vault world champion Angelica Sidorova and men’s 110m-metre hurdler Sergey Shubenkov.
The three athletes met with World Athletics President Sebastian Coe last week.
“They were very clear about their desire to be part of that change process and they made some very helpful observations around coaching and the need for a cultural shift,” Coe said.
“They want to be part of the solution and clearly they wanted to be protective of their ability to compete, particularly as authorised neutral athletes.”
New criteria will include the RusAF establishing a Reinstatement Commission. The Commission will include the Russian Sports Ministry and Russian Olympic Committee officials, as well as representatives from the Russian Anti-Doping Agency and the RusAF Athletes’ Commission.
The Commission is tasked with creating a roadmap to establish a culture of zero-tolerance cheating in the disgraced nation. The roadmap will be approved approval by the World Athletics Council.
